As MLAs in Tamil
Nadu got a raise of Rs. 50,000 in their salary members of
parliament also raised the demand of a pay hike on Wednesday on
a day when the house also discussed farmer distress later. The
demand was first raised by Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agarwal who
said secretaries in government and MLAs had better salaries than
MPs and proposed that MPs be included in the seventh pay
commission to raise the salaries of parliamentarians.

Agarwal got support from others like senior Congress leader
Anand Sharma who said MPs in India are worst paid.

While Agarwal said MPs don't want to feel like beggars asking
for more salary Sharma put forward the argument stating that MPs
have to run their homes in Delhi and also in their
constituencies.

The demand for a salary hike ironically came on a day when the
opposition in Rajya Sabha strongly raised the issue of agrarian
crisis in the country, saying farmers were being forced to do
distress sale of crops in the face of cheaper zero-duty imports.